Family Superlatives....

Out of the blue the other day, Benji says to me, "Dad, I'm stupendous."

"Really? You are? How do you know?"

"I just am," he replies matter-of-factly.

"Ok," I pursue, "so if you are stupendous, what am I?"

"Hm," he thinks for a second. "You are just normal."

"Oh, so what about Maia? Is she stupendous, too."

"No," he declares with authority. "She is fantastic."

"I see. So you are stupendous, Maia is fantastic and I am 'just normal'."

"Yeah."

"What about Mommy? What is she?"

For this one he takes a long time to consider his options. "She is... stinky balls!"

Honestly, I have no idea where he gets this stuff, but just for the sake of those who are keeping track, here's the breakdown:

Benji = stupendous
Maia = fantastic
Dad = just normal
Mom = stinky balls

Noted...

Racial Identity...

Racial identity is a funny thing. In 2014 there was a study that found millions of American change their racial identity on occasions, particularly many hispanic individuals began reporting themselves as white. And we can't forget NAACP leader Rachel Dolezal who was quite genealogically white, yet identified as black (and fooled others to believe she was black for quite some time as well).

In our family, race is understandably a bit less...er, black and white. I guess you could say we put the "asian" in "caucasian." While I know that I am as white as sunscreen on cream cheese, I can't help but feel that we are a predominantly Asian family. My wife is Vietnamese, and our kids are 50/50, so we as a family unit are as caucasian as we are Asian. But in our family traditions, diet, and other ways we align with the Asian culture more than our neighbors. I still have difficulty keeping my shoes on when I visit the homes of friends.

What got me thinking about this subject today was something I observed in my three-year-old, Benji. Anna has been endeavoring to keep the apps on his hand-me-down iPad educational rather than solely for entertainment. So, when adding and inspecting an app for Benji, she chose an avatar for him. This app has a set number of choices. Anna chose the young asian boy avatar for Benji, since that is the closest approximation she could see.

Then later, I was watching Benji play with that app. He found the settings and when browsing the avatar choices, changed his likeness to a boy of the same age, but white. It was clear to me, that Benji currently sees himself more like that boy than the one Anna had selected for him. It's interesting to know how your children see themselves. I wonder if we had stayed in Guam with a more diverse culture if he would see himself more like the Asian avatar or still as the white one.

I have yet to ask Maia how she sees herself. I'm sure this is an issue that will come into play more as our children grow up.

Although I am spending time to blog about this, I don't really understand the big issue with racial identity. It used to frustrate me how much we hear about and debate on race issues in our media and culture, and now I'm just burned out on the subject.

I miss Guam in that way; we were all of a different (and often mixed) race. That consistent diversity kept us all feeling a bit more equal in a way. Sure we acknowledge cultural differences and would have some racial clicks, but our forced proximity and volume of diversity make the subject a non-issue. I remember someone visiting me at work one day and observing that I was the only white guy in my office. I hadn't even noticed it until that point. I was. And it didn't matter. And it was great.

Now back in the racially heated contiguous 48, I feel like there is no escape from the constant onslaught of these biases and issues.  I'm not pointing fingers or blaming anyone. It is the way it is. And I wish it could be different.

I wish we could all just see that we are all of some mixed-race of some kind and we all come from diverse backgrounds. At some point in our past we all share common ancestors. I would like to think we could keep that in mind when we interact with each other, but I'm not naive enough to think that will happen any time soon.

At any rate, my point is that this is all a matter of perspective. If we could be more empathetic and identify with some aspect of other ethnicities, we could be more understanding of each other. That's not to say I support the deception of Rachel Dolezal. We should also be true to who we really are. But if we could learn to identify with other races, in some way, we could let the little unintentional gafs go and start the healing.

I'm not an Asian, and no, I don't play one on TV. But after the experiences I've had over the past decade of my life, I can understand how one would start to feel as if their cultural, and even racial, identity can drift. Our little blended family can't even agree on our race. But we still do now and always will love each other for who we are. And that is enough.

"I Want My Dirty Dirty Diaper..."

Kids never cease to amaze parents. Here's an example from our recent trip to Japan. While there, Benji decided he could no longer be saddled with clean diapers. It's sort of like how you become attached to those favorite blue jeans way after they are worn out...



Next time, I will be wearing a diaper, too. That way I can give him my leftover dirty dirty diaper...

Watching the 2015 Super Blood Moon with Kids...

I had heard that some people are preparing for the end of the world based on the 2015 Super Blood Moon we had last night. As we were out for a family walk, we saw the shadow of the earth taking over the moon's glow.

I got home and set up my camera, fixed to track to moon as it rises and goes red. When reviewing the footage I realized how amusing my kid's conversations were, so that became the new focus of the video.



I didn't get stellar footage with my basic home-use equipment. But hey, I can get better footage again in only 18 more years...

Super Blood Moon rising

Super Blood Moon and a plane passing on the right

High Life in Pinetop...

It just so happened that my parents found themselves with an extra room in a rental property in Pinetop for the week, so my wife, kids and I got to be the lucky recipients of the vacancy.

We actually stayed a week in a cabin once before this summer already. Anna was a bit bored. So, this time we made sure we had enough activities to keep her from feeling that way. I was perfectly fine doing nothing and relaxing. But I had fun being busy, too.

Our place was more of a townhouse than cabin, but we called it a cabin anyway. The "cabin" is in a complex with a main office connected to a game room (complete with pool table, ping pong, checkers, Foosball, etc), a weight room, a Jacuzzi and there's always fresh popcorn on tap. They also had bikes to rent.

Anna is actually riding a bike that my parents brought. Maia loved the bike she borrowed.

My dad brought up his inflatable kayak and we took it out for a spin a couple times in Rainbow Lake.

 Of course, we couldn't have come this close without visiting the Snowflake Temple. I was shocked at how far in the middle of nowhere the Snowflake temple is. If I hadn't known better, I would think I was in the wrong place up until I saw the Angel Moroni in the distance.

 While we were at it, we took a small detour to the very small one-horse town called Woodruff. It's about 30 miles out of Snowflake. It's remarkable to think that people actually still live there. Especially when you see the types of homes there...

My favorite part about this home is that I saw a new satellite dish mounted on the other side. 

 My grandma is from Woodruff. No offence to the residents, but it's just a bit too slow for my speed. I am sure grandma can honestly say it's a nice place to be from, but probably not in.

On our last full day, we drove out to Sunrise, the ski resort. It's summer in Arizona, so you can imagine that we did not ski. The park is open with activities like sledding, and riding the ski lifts to the peak for the view. We did the latter only. It was still surprisingly cold. We had to break down and pay way too much for hot cocoa at the lodge at the top.

And, just like that, the whole week passed us by. It went so fast, I felt like we barely got there when it was time to go home. This time, we keep Anna busy enough to avoid boredom. The only problem is that it worked too well. Now that we are back home we are all bored of our regular life...

That's all of us except Benji, who took this untouched photo. Not bad for a 2 year old, eh?

First Pic with New Camera...

I got a new "Adventure Proof" camera in preparation for our trip to Korea. It's a Ricoh (formerly known as Pentax) WG-4 GPS. Waterproof, Freeze Proof, Crush Proof, and Shock Proof with GPS, compass and a bevy of other cool features. A bit thick and heavy, but one that Maia and even Benji will have a hard time breaking. And they will try....

First picture I took with the new camera. This is Maia in the car on the way to school.

Halloween 2013...

Maia as Snow White

Anna as Little Red Riding Hood and Benji as The Big Bad Wolf

Running Does Not Run in Our Family...

A dark and closely guarded family secret was recently exposed to the light of day. Apparently, my father lettered in a sport in high school. That's innocuous enough. However, he lettered in, get this, Shuffleboard!

In the 40+ years that my mom has known my father, she was under the impression that he earned his letter from marching band. I suppose my dad was happy to let her think that. One must be pretty ashamed of lettering in anything else when marching band is a more attractive alternative.

I thankfully can hold my head high in the knowledge that I lettered in something much more physically demanding, intellectually stimulating and above all, masculine. My extra curricular activity surpasses the derogation of monikers like "pig skin," "hoops" or even "America's past time." It practically stepped out of a Norman Rockwell painting with a slice of apple pie in its hands. Indeed, it personifies macho Americana. Yes, you guessed it: Drama...

Best Birth Control Scam Ever...

So, this week Anna came up to me and said she had a special Christmas gift for me. I could tell by her tone that I was not going to like it. She pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to me to read. Being a doctor's note, it was nearly illegible. I was able to make out one word: "intercourse." Anna helped fill in the blanks. Basically, Anna handed me a doctor's note excusing her from "intercourse." I guess the days of "I have a headache" are behind us. Now it's a proven medical necessity.

I instinctively laughed at first. Then it sunk in, this was real. Wait... real? Really real? Yes.

It turns out Anna had just had an injection of birth control. Due to the injections, she cannot have intercourse or she runs the risk of being pregnant. That's when this amazing dichotomy struck me.

"You mean to tell me, that you were just given birth control, to keep you from getting pregnant. But as a result of this birth control, you cannot have intercourse, or you run the risk of getting pregnant?" She confirmed.

It seems to me that any form of birth control that only works while you are abstinent is... genius! Why didn't I think of that? I should be out there selling this product. Any concerned parent of a high schools age child would be interested in this product, if it worked. It clearly has a market. After all, my wife jumped at the chance to get it. She was so excited by the prospect that she had the doctor change the note from, "no intercourse for 3 weeks" to "no intercourse for 4 weeks." Hmm....was that really necessary? So much for a romantic anniversary tonight...

Three's a Company, Four's a Full House...

Today, we had a new edition to our family. We have been anxiously awaiting this little bundle for a while. My hope was for a Halloween baby, but it wasn't in the cards. Instead, Benji decided to be punctual and arrive exactly on his due date, something that I hear is only done about 5% of the time.

We knew the time was at hand about 10pm on Nov 3. All night, Anna had very long, frequent and painful contractions. We slept off and on until about 2am when we gave up and knew it was time to call the birthing center. At the advice of the birthing center, we stopped by a 24 hour grocery market to get some snacks and Gatorade.

Once we were in our room, much to Anna's chagrin, I started setting up my cameras, tripods and computer equipment. But, at Anna's request, I left the 3D camera in the car. 

By 6am, it was time for the real final stretch. Poor Anna hadn't slept well for 2 days, so she was totally exhausted. It was a long haul for the last couple hours. Before long, Anna was pleading for a C-section, not that anyone could blame her. However, by 9:03am, Benjamin Warren Bodine was signed sealed and delivered! 

Benji's first picture... (...out of the womb.)

Mom gets some bonding time seconds after the birth.

As soon as Benji was out, everybody in the room was in awe at his size. Some of the staff guessed he was nearly 9 lbs. And for a small girl like Anna, that's even more amazing. 

Birth is not just exhausting for mommy...

First grooming.

After some cleaning and protocol, we found the final stats.

Weight: 9lb 2oz. Length: 21.5 inches. This is a big kid!

We spent the next 24 hours in the birthing center recovering and bonding. When we came home, our 2 1/2 year old, Maia, was still taking her nap. When she woke up, I came into her room, told her we had a special surprise for her. We walk over to the crib and on first sight Maia giggles. "Baby Benji! Hi!" And she blows him a kiss. Off to a good start. That affection will wain once she realizes how much attention mom gives him.

So, we are now a family of 4. I tease Anna that we need to have another 11 boys, to make it a dozen. This pregnancy was pretty hard on Anna and she's feeling done. Truthfully, I'm content. We have a great full family and couldn't ask for more.

The Littlest Giant...

My favorite band, They Might Be Giants, recently did a revamp of their children's song "The Alphabet of Nations." They called for pictures of kids from these different countries. Naturally, I submitted pictures of Maia. And she made the cut!

Ah, fame. For a signed photo of Maia, please send $1,000 dollars and a pre-paid stamped envelope to us. No refunds...

It's A Boy...!

Today we had the official ultrasound for our new baby. Unlike Maia, this one was very helpful and liked to pose for photos. We've been hoping for a boy, and therefore calling the baby "him" or even by his soon-to-be nickname, "Benji" which will be short for Benjamin Warren Bodine. The ultrasound confirmed that he is indeed a he. 

Great profile shot. Thanks for posing, Benji! (Sorry you got your monther's nose.)

Yes, this is indeed a boy. It seems there is not much room for error.

Benji is due on Halloween, and this image shows he can be pretty scary looking when he wants to.

Maia University...

The Pink Fairy of Guam...

Mommy says that one day Maia saw this clothes in the house and just had to wear it. So, they donned the duds and did an impromptu photo shoot. Considering this was done with a simple point and shoot, some of these pics came out pretty darn good. Here's my favorite.

 

And I saved my favorite for last:

Another Milestone for Maia...

Today our 20 month old potty training toddler had an accident-free day. It's always a proud day when your child exceeds you...

Halloween 2011...

Last year for Halloween, we dressed up Maia as R2-D2, but she didn't know the difference and we didn't get many miles out of that outfit. This year, Maia is still a bit young to really understand the holiday, but we did another costume. At this age, she'll pull off any costume that she feels restricts her, so we went with the easy "Little Red Ridding Hood."

This year we also did a jack-o-lantern. Because Maia wouldn't be very helpful with a knife, we decided to only do a drawing. Mom later went ahead and cut it as well.

Maia: A Day in the Life...

Sometimes Maia does things that look like only an adult should do, like read the newspaper, text, Yoga and so on. So, I filmed some and put this fun little video together. Enjoy!

Revenge is a Dish Best Served Regurgitated (aka Payback is a B...aby)...

Poor baby Maia is sick. Despite the odds, she's barely been sick at all in her first year. She's trying to make up for lost time now. Last night she was having trouble sleeping, likely due to the fever and stuffy nose. So we took her onto our bed for a short time.

While crawling around and just as she was half over me, she had a hiccup, which then accompanied a fountain of partially digested baby food spewing forth from her mouth. I thought the stuff was nasty looking before she ate it. To be fair to Maia, I should have seen it coming. When her head did a full 360 degree turn I had my first warning.

The vomit not only landed on me, but also all over my side of the bed. Somehow, inexplicably, my parents 6 thousand miles away started laughing uncontrollably. Naturally, Anna's side of the bed was as pristine as a showroom display.

Tonight her fever has continued. As we put her down for bed, we thought we might fare better this time. She stood up in her crib and starting bawling. We usually give her a few minutes to cry so she can calm down on her own and go to sleep. But we could tell from this cry it wasn't going to be one of those passing sobs. Anna walking in to check on her and found that she had left a projectile war path of sputum. It was all over her chest, the floor, her crib, toys, dresser and I believe the ceiling. It looked as if someone had hooked her up to one of those garden hose toys that randomly shoots out in all directions.

Anna and I tried to clean the mess before contacting an old priest and young priest who were familiar with exorcism. I got the fun task of hand washing the sick off the linen before we put it into the washing machine. I nearly added more of my own in the process.

I know I donated my fair share of throw-up when I was a child. And I know that I wasn't the one that cleaned it up. So, I suppose its only fair that I am now on the other side. I was just thinking the other day that being a father isn't so bad. But after tonight I found myself thinking that I don't want to be a dad right now. My parents would have gotten a kick out of seeing me deal with this tonight.

These moments pass and before I know it, I'll be reading Maia's blog one day about how she is cleaning up her first child's vomit...

How did this topic get me onto The Circle of Life?

Christmas 2010...

Now that all the dust (and snow) has settled from my hectic Christmas trip, it's time to blog all about it.

The worst part about living in Guam is how inconvenient it is to visit anywhere but the Philippines, Japan or Chuuk. This trip to Arizona would take 24 hours from our house to my parents'. We've never traveled with a baby before, so we were unsure of how the trip would fare.




Maia was remarkably well behaved the whole time. I'd be spoiled if I complained about her during this trip. I've seen people with kids on planes before. Heads spinning, crawling on the celling, opening the windows, riding on the wings... This was much better than I'd expected. I even discovered that the tray tables on the seat in front of you make great makeshift beds. But I recommend you remove the baby before you are served the culinary experiment they call an "in-flight service."

We were only at my parents' house for a couple days before we headed north to visit my Grandma on my mom's side. It will likely be Maia's only chance to meet her. Then, back to Mesa. We visited the Mesa Temple to see the lights.





Then we met up and head north to a cabin. By "we" I mean the whole family. My parents, all my siblings, all their children, casual acquaintances, well-wishers, and we may have even picked up some transients along the way. My mom's excitement was at the boiling point as this was the first time we had all of us together at once in over a decade. We had to take a census just to make sure everyone made it to the cabin.

This cabin was reserved online, so none of us knew what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised. With about 10 bedrooms and plenty of living space, we all fit in much better than anticipated. Having a large kitchen was a necessity due to the amount of food my mom brought. We had enough food to nourish an entire battleship crew at sea for a month.

What I was most looking forward to on this trip was finally feeling cold. Living in Hawaii for several years and now in Guam for 5 years, I miss having my winters. There was some snow, but nothing to blog about...excepting that I'm currently blogging about it...

Me, Maia, Anna, Kris (brother), Sarah (his baby) and Jam (his wife) out for a walk in the snow.

A short drive away there was enough snow to do some sledding. We spent plenty of time there. I bet you expect great footage of this from me. Well, not so much. But I got one cool pic.



At night the kids mostly wanted to run around like wild savages or watch TV...while acting like wild savages. One night we were able to formalize an activity by playing "Minute to Win It." The "Stack Attack" game was popular. This is a game where you start with a stack of cups and need to arrange them into a pyramid. Then, you must collapse the cups back into a single stack in 60 seconds. My nephew Parker thought of a great way to win.

Why bother with the pyramid in the middle? It's so simple, why didn't I think of that?

I participated in "Face the cookie." This is where you place a cookie on your forehead and have to get it into your mouth with use of gravity and your facial muscles. Unfortunately, you also have to use up any ounce of pride you may have left as well. Naturally, I was able to complete the task.



The night before we planed on leaving, we heard there was a storm coming. So, we did the smart thing and preloaded up our cars with the food that we would need on hand should we get snowed in. As it started to snow, we had a snowball fight.





We went to bed to this:


And woke up to this:


The roads were all closed and our cars were buried. We had no choice but to stay. The landscape changed a lot in a short time. Take a look at these two pics. If Al Gore were with us, I'd throw a ball of global warming in his face.

Before
After

I figured we might as well make the most of it, so we played.


Meanwhile, my teenage nieces moaned that they had to be stuck in a multi-million dollar cabin with all the luxuries of home and then some. We all felt for them.

We did have a bit of a scare. Mom decided to start rationing the food. She was rightly concerned we might not have enough to survive the blizzard. Some people a few cabins over came to us food shopping as they had run completely out. After we gave them cereal, a dozen eggs, a couple pounds of russet potatoes, a honey glazed ham, and half slab of beef, our supply of food had depleted to the point that we could see parts of the kitchen counter.

The next morning we were advised of a break in the storm that we could use to make our escape. The cars were about half dug out when a few drove carefully to civilization to purchase snow chains for our vehicles. I completed the digging process.





It was ironic that all I wanted for Christmas break was to be cold. At this point, I was knee deep in snow shoveling my Christmas miracle. And due to the exercise, I wasn't cold at all.

When all the vehicles were chained up, free of snow and loaded to the brim with our meager five year food supply, we took our last group shots.









The ride back was pretty treacherous. At some points all we could see was a white haze ahead of us. We attempted to get out before the storm came back with a vengeance. Due to snow chains eating the surrounding wheel well of my sister's Suburban, we couldn't go more than 20 mph. Even then, with every revolution of the wheel, I could see my sister cringe at the thought of the damage being caused. I don't know what the big deal is. Once the snow thaws in the spring, someone will easily identify her bumper and, thanks to the licence plate, track her down to return it.

One of the vehicles may or may not have been lost in the caravan back, but my wife, child and I made it back to Mesa safely, so no regrets. Well, my mom did have one. Due to being snowed in, we missed our appointment with the photographer. I'm sure we'll get another chance to take pictures with the entire family next decade when we get together. Anna decided to have an impromptu photo shoot of our own in lieu.







New Year's Eve was surprisingly uneventful. But we did learn that if you keep Martinelli's on the shelf long enough, that sparking apple cider starts to blur the line between Mormon-safe and a phone call to your Bishop. It may have been 2011, but we were partying like we were drinking bottles from 1999...because apparently, we were.

The rest of the time I spent visiting friends and browsing in stores that are larger than the entire island of Guam. Another favorite pastime was taking walks. Arizona has so many citrus trees open for the plucking. Anna made sure to get more than her fair share. On one outing my mother was concerned that Maia would have cold hands, so she donated some gloves.

Something about this picture just does not look right.

All other free time was spent being my family's personal technical support. I reinstalled Windows on 3 computers, repaired 2 machines and built 1 from scratch. I wonder if surgeons have to perform free appendectomies and hysterectomies when they visit their families.

Anna and I had just enough time for her to get a patriarchal blessing and we were able to visit the Mesa Temple the day before we left. From Heaven on Earth it was off to Dante's seventh layer of Hell, known as "TSA airport screening" to laymen.

So now we are back. It was a great holiday season. Now comes the price of the trip. My lawn has grown over so much while I was away I found an entire tribe of indigenous people living there when I attempted to mow it today. Work piled up so high I had to get a second desk and declare my first one a loss. As much as I enjoyed the vacation, I'm glad to be home. Now, off to Vietnam to do it all over again for Tet, but this time, in a foreign language...